Wild Card || Levi x Reader

nine - when I've paid all my debts

Levi sounds like he's hacking up a lung by the time the two of you get into one of the tunnel entrances. You tug him around the corner, still wary of fireballs, and the two of you sink to the ground a few meters into the tunnel, coughing and trying desperately to clear out your throats.

You try to remember what they got the miners in District 12 to do after a tunnel collapse. Most of the time, not many people make it out, but the ones that do are always coughing so hard that, as a kid, you thought they were going to spit out something from inside their body. What did they do? Sit upright, deep breaths...

You sit yourself up, leaning against one of the tunnel walls, and try to control your breathing. Deep breath in, deep breath out. "Levi," you croak out, "sit up, it helps."

Levi drops his backpack off of his shoulders, sword tumbling out of his hands as he forces himself to sit up. You reach for his bag, fumbling for the water bottle. Should you be drinking water to battle the smoke inhalation? You have no idea. But after the first sip, your throat feels better, so you decide it can't be that bad.

Slowly, you crawl over to where Levi is. You know speaking hurts, so you grab his hand. "Water," you manage to say. "Tap twice for yes, once for no."

He's coughing too violently to properly nod, so maybe this'll be easier for him. Levi taps your hand twice. You uncap the bottle, handing it to him, and Levi gulps down at least half of it, nearly choking on the water as it rushes down his throat. You sit next to him, one hand on his shoulder as if to steady him- but honestly, you just need the contact, something to ground you. 

When Levi's done, he hands the bottle back to you, and you tip the rest of it back. "I'll go get more," you manage. You're aware of how bad it is out there, but water's a necessity, and if the two of you are going to venture further into the tunnels, you don't know when the next time you'll find water is.

Levi taps you once. No.

You frown. "We're going to-" you break off to cough- "going to need more water."

He taps you once again. No.

Frowning, you move to get up, but Levi's hand grabs onto your wrist. You pause, looking towards him. 

"We stick together," Levi rasps, his voice hoarse. He lets go of your wrist. "Don't."

Sticking together. Fair enough. Sighing to yourself, you sit back down, shifting so that you've got your back to the same wall that Levi does, shoulders close enough to touch. "Alright," you agree. "I'm not going anywhere."

The two of you sit, gathering oxygen as you listen to the world burn down around you.

.

You don't know how long it is before Levi's coughing slows, but eventually, he's got enough oxygen in him to breathe properly. You sit with him the whole time, constantly on alert for any other tributes that may be fleeing the flames, but no one comes. 

Eventually, Levi musters out, "how bad is it out there?"

You raise your eyebrows. "Am I allowed to check now?"

"Dumbass. Just-"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," you say, rolling your eyes as you shove yourself to your feet. You head towards the tunnel opening, taking a few steps out into the open.

The area is nearly unrecognizable. The fire's not as angry as it was before when it was consuming the whole forest, but there's still patches of flames here and there. The ground is charred back; more trees are fallen over than standing upright. 

You can still make out the river in the distance, and water is still a must (especially after how much you both drank), so you're going to need to go back out. "It's a wasteland out here," you call back to Levi, eyes still scanning the horizon. "I think we could-"